


Zombies and Skinned Knees

by Stariceling



Category: Robotboy
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-24
Updated: 2010-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-06 01:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/pseuds/Stariceling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Tommy's help, Robotboy learns more about humans, about zombies, and a little bit about how fragile they can be. (Note: Contents light and fluffy. May not contain working zombies.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zombies and Skinned Knees

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I had a lot of fun writing it! I really wanted to let Robotboy learn something that wasn't covered in the series. Writing the dialogue for these guys is an interesting challenge for me.
> 
> I originally had this posted in three chapters, but since they're so short I decided to combine them into one long part.

The steep street that the Turnbull house stood on was not the safest place to learn skateboarding. Not that this would stop a pair of energetic ten-year-old boys who were itching for a chance to go on a real roller coaster.

"Okay, check this out. It's gonna be wicked!"

Tommy Turnbull was standing at the top of the hill with Robotboy on one side, watching him with great interest, and Gus on the other. He closed one eye and squinted down the hill, trying to size up the perfect path.

"Aw. . . How come you get to go first?" Gus complained.

"Because it's my skateboard."

He hadn't been able to buy a new one since most of his allowance went to parts for Robotboy. On the other hand, Robotboy had helped him build his own board, and Tommy was confident in it. As long as it would run smooth and straight what more could he need?

"You're really no fair, Tommy. You won't even let me borrow Robotboy to-"

"Gus, I said no!"

"Why G-man want borrow Robotboy?" The little robot looked up at Tommy, his curiosity to see the skateboard they had made in action momentarily eclipsed.

"It's nothing. Don't you dare try to talk him into it," Tommy warned, knowing that his robotic friend wouldn't see the harm in Gus's crazy schemes. "Or I won't let you stay over to watch Zombie Overlords with Chainsaws III." Tommy was half ready to give up the first run on the skateboard if that was the only thing that would distract Gus.

"What zombie?" Robotboy wanted to know.

They're awesome. "They're all like 'Gruuuh,'" Gus explained, holding his arms out stiff and making a stupid face with his tongue hanging out.

"Like mummy?"

"No, no, no. They're all, 'Blea, I eat'cher brains!'" This time Gus brought his hands up near his face and wiggled his fingers creepily.

"Like vampire!"

"No! They're all, 'Gwaaar!'" This time Gus threw both hands up, fingers crooked like claws, looking very little like a zombie at this point.

"Wolf-man?"

Tommy was momentarily incapacitated with laughter as Gus's attempts to explain got increasingly further from being zombie-like. Robotboy's confused guesses only made it more hilarious.

"Swamp-thing? Snake-hair monster? Mrs. Principal-lady?"

Gus finally turned on Tommy and asked, "Man, you gonna go or what?"

"Yes! Want see wicked Tommy!"

Robotboy's praise had an instant effect on Tommy's ego. He abandoned his attempt to spy out an optimal route down the hill and jumped onto the skateboard without a second thought.

The ride was an absolute rush. Tommy crouched low on the board, eyes narrowed against the wind as his blond hair was whipped back from his face. Fences and street lamps flashed by on either side, faster and faster. The steep hill plunged him to what felt like the speed of a roller coaster on its first drop.

It was almost like flying, right up until he had to jerk and swerve away from a stray cat. The front of the skateboard caught on a street lamp when he couldn't right himself in time. The skateboard stopped with a jerk, but Tommy didn't.

Tommy experienced a split second of a very different kind of flying. He hit the edge of the sidewalk, hard enough to get the wind knocked out of him, and rolled off into the street. He instinctively threw both arms up to protect his head.

In the next moment Tommy felt the familiar impact of being caught and lifted in a pair of metal arms. Before he'd even had time to think about it, he knew he was safe.

"Thanks, Ro," Tommy gasped out.

"Tommy okay?"

"Yeah. That was some kind of wipeout, though."

"What kind wipeout?"

Tommy laughed, "Nevermind. Wait! We have to get the skateboard."

Tommy grabbed up his skateboard, which had flipped over and lay with its wheels still spinning on the sidewalk. He didn't protest when Robotboy simply flew them up to the top of the hill. He was low enough to be hidden by people's fences. Besides, Tommy didn't think he would ever get tired of flying with Robotboy.

"You want to go next, Ro?" Tommy offered.

"No way!" Gus grabbed the skateboard, puffing out his chest and stomach. "It's time for the G-man to show you how its done."

Robotboy didn't seem to be interested in what happened with the skateboard anymore. After letting Tommy down he had landed and couched with his hands on his knees to look at Tommy's legs.

"Tommy leaking," he announced, alarmed.

Tommy looked down to find that he had ripped his jeans and scraped his knee badly when he fell. There was even a little blood running down his leg from it. It actually hurt now that he was aware of it.

"It's no big deal, Ro. It'll stop in a minute."

"Robotboy fix!" Robotboy held up one arm, the joints in his hand parted and made way for what Tommy instantly recognized as a torch.

"Whoa! No way, Ro! You can't weld me, okay?"

"Dude, that would be wicked cool! You'd be like a cyborg!"

"No. I wouldn't."

Robotboy's antennas drooped when Tommy yelled at him. Tommy crouched down in front of him to catch his eyes and patted him on the top of the head, trying to cheer up his little robot friend.

"I know you're trying to help. It's just that repairs for humans are a little different, okay?" Tommy smiled to see Robotboy perk up again at the reassurance. "You're a good friend, Ro."

"Okay, man, now you're just harshing the G-man's vibes," Gus objected.

"So go already."

"G-man wipe out too?"

"Uh, no! I'm gonna show you how we ride in my town!"

Gus hopped onto the skateboard, which immediately took off down the hill with him.

"Whoa! Whoa! I wasn't ready!" Gus shouted, arms flailing like a windmill.

His ride didn't even last as long as Tommy's. Donnie was out in the Turnbull's front walk collecting the mail, and apparently he couldn't resist clotheslining Gus as he rocketed by. Gus fell and went skidding along on his butt for several feet.

Tommy winced in sympathy. There was a second while his hand hovered over Robotboy's deactivation switch, but Donnie went back inside, laughing, without even glaceing up the street.

The skateboard kept flying down the hill without Gus, only to be demolished by a run-in with a van at the next intersection. Tommy winced again at the loss of the board they had worked to build together.

"So much for that," he sighed.

Tommy started down the hill to meet up with Gus, who was rubbing his backside and howling about sidewalk-burn. Tommy really couldn't blame him for that one.

"Tommy still leaking."

"It's just a little blood. It told you it'll stop soon."

"Blood?"

"Blood is. . . It's an important fluid humans are full of. It carries nutrients and oxygen and stuff." This from science class, though Tommy had never paid as strict attention to biology as he did to anything concerning robotics. Robotboy didn't seem to understand, so he tried to make it simpler. "You can just think of it like oil or coolant. It's something that keeps humans running, so it's important not to lose too much of it."

"Tommy, no leak blood!" Robotboy was even more alarmed now.

"Okay, I'll put a bandage on it. Come on."

By this time they were in front of Tommy's house. Tommy deactivated Robotboy and caught his shrinking frame before he could fall, in case he had to get Robotboy past his brother inside.

"You okay, Gus?"

"The G-man needs a new pair of pants," Gus moaned. When he stood up it was obvious his skid down the sidewalk had left a sizable hole. Tommy averted Robotboy's eyes.

"Yeah, you might want to go fix that," Tommy agreed. Besides, it was probably better if he could explain blood to Robotboy without Gus adding in stuff from horror movies.

"I'll meet you guys in time for the movie, so don't start without me!"

"Sure."

Tommy went inside and slipped upstairs, trying to avoid Donnie. He made it to the upstairs bathroom without incident. Inside, he quickly closed the door and activated Robotboy once again.

"No want Tommy lose blood," Robotboy protested again as soon as he was activated. He had really become fixated.

"I'm gonna fix that right now."

Tommy looked down at his knee and noticed that his knee was kind of dirty, to the point where it looked like a mix of blood and mud. He took off his shoes and jeans and stepped into the tub to rinse off his leg. He didn't think to take his socks off until after they were soaked.

"Tommy leak more blood!" Robotboy cried. The scrape had started bleeding again once the dirt was washed out of it.

"I said it's okay. You're supposed to clean out a cut before you put a bandage on it," Tommy tried to explain.

Tommy took a paper towel and tried to dry his knee and blot up some of the blood. He opened the medicine cabinet with his free hand and quickly noticed that the bandages he wanted were on the top shelf, well out of his reach. He stretched to grab at them and came up short.

"Could you get that for me?"

Robotboy floated up easily and handed him a bottle from the top shelf.

"Chest hair mega-grow? Ew! It this Donnie's?" Tommy dropped it on the counter. "A little to the left, Ro."

Robotboy picked up the spray bottle that was right next to the box Tommy wanted.

"Not that. That's the disinfectant mom puts on cuts."

"Ooooh."

Robotboy turned and sprayed the disinfectant on Tommy's knee.

"Yeow!" Tommy yelped. The disinfectant hurt more than the cut itself.

Robotboy dropped the spray bottle and hovered over Tommy, eyes glowing with concern.

"Tommy hurt?"

"It just stings," Tommy explained, already embarrassed at his own outburst. "Hand me that white box."

Robotboy picked out the right thing this time. Tommy took one of the large bandages from it, wiped away the blood that was starting to dribble down his leg again, then stuck the bandage in place.

Robotboy inspected the bandage curiously. He even paused in mid-air and scanned Tommy's knee, blue beams of light from his eyes tracing up and down over the bandage.

"Tommy still leaking! Bandage no fix."

"It's okay," Tommy reassured him. "The bandage will help it close up, and then it'll start healing. That's when your body fixes itself on its own, instead of needing repairs," he explained, before Robotboy could ask. "That's what humans usually do, unless they're hurt really bad."

Tommy started cleaning up while Robotboy considered this.

"Robotboy want heal too."

"I'm not sure you can heal the same way, Ro. I mean, when you get damaged it's usually-"

"Robotboy want heal too!"

"You have me to fix you up. Isn't that enough?" Tommy tried. Once his little robot friend got attached to an idea it became very difficult to dissuade him.

"Tommy put on bandage. Robotboy heal too! Like real boy!"

"You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

Robotboy inspected himself all over for damage, even though Tommy was always careful in his repairs.

"Here." Robotboy held out one leg and pointed to a place close to his own knee. "Have dent."

Tommy bent down to inspect the small dent. He must have missed that one last time he'd gone over Robotboy's basic repairs.

"I can fix that right up."

"Tommy bandage!"

"That's not going to help."

Robotboy's antennas drooped, dejected, making Tommy feel guilty.

"Sorry, Ro."

"Want heal. Like Tommy."

He looked so depressed, and it wasn't a very big dent. . .

"Okay, you can try it."

Tommy got out another bandage and carefully stuck it over the dent on Robotboy's leg. "There you go."

"Yay!" Both of Robotboy's antennas shot straight up in happiness.

It didn't last long. In a minute the bandage started to peel off of Robotboy's leg, unable to stick to the smooth metal.

"Bandage no like Robotboy."

"I'm sorry, Ro." Tommy patted his friend consolingly, watching the bandage float to the floor. He didn't like to see Robotboy sad, but it the adhesive didn't stick. . . that gave Tommy a sudden idea.

"Wait here a second. I know how to fix it."

Tommy dashed downstairs, not minding his smarting knee, and gathered up a handful of colorful magnets from the fridge. He ran back up to the bathroom and found Robotboy trying to make the bandage stick.

"This'll fix it."

Using the fridge magnets, Tommy was able to make the bandage stick over Robotboy's dent. That simple thing cheered him right up again. Tommy laughed to see Robotboy flying circles around the bathroom, admiring his new bandage.

"Come on. We'll just hang out until it's time for the movie."

They left the bathroom for Tommy's room, Robotboy streaking across the hallway in a blue and silver blur.

"So did Gus ever explain to you about zombies?"

Robotboy considered before stating, "Zombie scary, smelly, go 'Gwar,' and eat brains. Like mummy-vampire."

"That's a good description," Tommy laughed.

Plopping down on his bed, Tommy looked over when Robotboy settled next to him. He had that look that suggested he was still processing new data. That probably meant more questions, which Tommy didn't really mind. It was good Robotboy was so curious about his world.

"Vampire drink blood," he started, after his moment of consideration.

"Well yeah."

"Vampire take out blood. Like drain oil."

"Sort of. That's how they kill you and turn you into a vampire too." Tommy put his fingers up to his mouth like fangs. "Bluuh. I vant to suck your blood."

"Vampire bad!"

Tommy quit with the fake fangs. "It's not a real problem. They're not real."

"Robotboy no like vampire!"

"Are you kidding? Vampires are awesome!"

Tommy looked around to find that Gus had let himself in when he came back with fresh clothes. He had walked in just in time to defend one of his favorite movie monsters.

"Vampire bad!"

"Vampires are awesome!"

"Vampire bad!"

That sort of argument wasn't going to get settled any time soon. Tommy put his hands over his head and groaned in frustration. He didn't mind Robotboy's curiosity and questions, or even the way he would get fixated on things, but this quibble he could do without.

* * *

"You guys are gonna love this movie! It's supposed to be a total splatterfest!" Gus shouted excitedly.

Gus was bouncing with enthusiasm on one side of the couch while Tommy sat with his legs tucked up on the other side. He had Robotboy's deactivated body tucked safely in his arms. Just leaving him propped up in his seat might have been hazardous since Donnie was leaning on the armrest closest to him, looking bored.

"I still can't believe my wimpy little brother needs his _doll_ just to watch a movie. You sure it's not past your bedtime?" Donnie teased.

"It's not bedtime until mom and dad get home."

"Heh." Donnie actually sounded as if he approved of that.

"Shh- It's starting!" Gus hissed at them.

By about fifteen minutes into the movie Tommy couldn't have denied he was clutching Robotboy pretty hard. Gus was clutching the popcorn bowl, peeking over the edge. Even Donnie looked a little pale, though he hadn't lost his cool yet.

"This movie is actually kind of lame after you see it two or three times," Donnie lied. "I'm going out." They hardly noticed him leaving until the front door closed.

Tommy took the opportunity to activate Robotboy, but he didn't quite want to let go of his friend yet. Robotboy was solid and familiar and could kick a lot of zombie butt if the need arose.

Another few minutes of zombie-slashing and the movie cut to a commercial break for 'sparkly breath tooth paste.' Tommy and Gus glanced at each other, both terrified and elated by the scary movie.

"Where Tommy brother go?"

"Uh. . . He said there was a party he wanted to go to." Of course Donnie could probably stay out half the night and not get in any trouble. "I bet he sneaks around and tried to scare us like he did during Suburban Swamp Thing."

That was a good enough excuse for the three of them to run around the house making sure all the doors and windows were locked. Robotboy had great fun with this, laughing and flying from room to room. It wasn't often he could play in the whole house like this, without Tommy's parents or brother there to see him.

They plopped down on the couch again just as the movie resumed. The human heros kept trying to find a town that wasn't controlled by zombie overlords. It was suspenseful and exciting, right up until the crazy old man decided to fight the zombies on his riding mover, and. . . .

"Oh, YUCK!" Tommy covered his eyes.

"He need _lots_ of bandages now."

"Robotboy!"

Tommy flailed around with one hand and covered Robotboy's eyes too.

"Why Tommy cover optical sensors?"

"It's the scary part! You're not supposed to watch!"

"Ooh."

Cold metal hands covered Tommy's eyes. Tommy let them stay there and used both hands to cover Robotboy's eyes in return.

The terrifying noises faded away after a few minutes. Maybe that meant the really gory part was done for now. Tommy would have peeked between his fingers if he could.

"Is it over? Hey, Gus?"

There was no response.

"Move your hand. I have to look and see if it's all right."

Tommy managed to get one eye open and found that the scene was back to a normal one again. Gus had a throw pillow over his head, cowering.

"It's okay now," Tommy sighed, uncovering Robotboy's eyes.

"When next scary part?"

"I don't know. I'll tell you when it comes up, okay?"

They watched the rest of the movie like that, covering each others eyes in the places where Tommy probably would have normally watched through his hands because he was too terrified to look away. If Gus had noticed he probably have made fun of them, but he spent most of those scenes enthralled with fear, staring over the edge of his pillow.

After a little while it became a game. Robotboy tried to cover Tommy's eyes while the zombie-slaying lead had a romantic moment with her love interest. Tommy tried to cover Robotboy's eyes during a toaster commercial. The entire thing eventually degenerated into wrestling and laughing and kicking at each other on the couch. Tommy almost missed the part where the zombie overlord was decapitated with his own chainsaw because his face was half-smushed against Robotboy's side.

As the ending credits finally rolled Tommy flopped back on the couch, less terrified by the gory zombie-slashing than he had ever been by a late night monster movie. It was entirely due to Robotboy, who had curled up with his head against Tommy's knees, still giggling.

Gus looked over at them, his eyes still wide with terror. After a minute he swallowed and managed, "Well, that was a pretty good flick. Not scary enough for the G-man, though. They gotta try harder if they want to get to us tough characters."

"Sure," Tommy laughed and fumbled for the remote to turn the T.V. off. As soon as he did the room was completely dark. The only light was the two blue pinpoints that marked Robotboy's glowing eyes.

"Ah! Tommy, turn it back on!"

The next second the room was illuminated in a flash by a pair of headlights. A car had just turned into the driveway.

"Aaaa! It's the zombie search parties coming to collect our brains!"

"It's worse! That's my parents! We have to get to bed now!"

As they jumped up to make a mad dash for the stairs, Robotboy simply swept them off their feet. He flew upstairs like a shot with one boy under each arm.

He landed in Tommy's room and let them down just as the front door opened downstairs. Gus scrambled head-first into the sleeping bag lying on the floor. Tommy took the time to whisper, "Thanks, Robotboy," before deactivating his friend and quickly climbing into bed with him. He pulled the covers up high around his chin to hide the fact that he hadn't put on pajamas.

Once he was in bed pretending to be asleep, it seemed to take forever before he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and toward his room. Tommy lay as if paralyzed until he heard his bedroom door close.

Outside he could hear his mom saying softly, "Well, Tommy and his friend are in bed, but where's Donnie?"

Tommy couldn't move until his parents went back downstairs. Once he thought it was safe he slid out of bed and crept around putting on his pajamas before crawling back under the covers.

He activated Robotboy again.

"Hey. I wanted to say goodnight."

"Is good night?"

"Yeah, it was fun. We have to have a movie night like this again."

"Tommy? Why watch scary movie and no watch scary part?"

"Well, it's fun to get a good scare sometimes. I just didn't want you to be _too_ scared."

"No scared!"

Just then a strange noise filled the room. It sounded almost like-

"Zombie chainsaw!"

Robotboy shot out from under the covers to hover over the bed. His eyes widened and glowed, illuminating the room in an eerie blue light. Tommy scrambled to sit up as well, heart pounding.

"I think that's Gus snoring," Tommy whispered after a second. They both waited, silent, until they were sure he was right.

Robotboy sighed, letting his eyes go dim again as he sunk back down to the bed. Tommy wiggled his way back into bed and flipped the comforter back over both of them. The sound of Gus snoring slowly became familiar and even comfortable in the dark room.

"Why scary movie scary?" Robotboy wanted to know. "Tommy?"

"I don't know," Tommy mumbled, turning his head into the pillow. "It's too late for philosophy now. Let's just go to sleep, okay?"

"No de-active!"

"Are you scared?"

Robotboy had the comforter pulled up to just under his eyes. His antennas drooped. His eyes were back to being little pinpoints of glowing blue light now. Tommy hadn't thought the movie had scared him while they were watching it.

"Maybe," Robotboy said.

"Okay, I'll stay awake for a while," Tommy yawned. "An' we'll try an' think why i's scary."

Tommy wouldn't remember later what they talked about. All he knew was that his eyes were so heavy, his bed so warm and comfortable, he couldn't help himself. He wanted to stay awake and talk to Robotboy, but between one word and the next he simply fell asleep.

* * *

Robotboy lay curled in Tommy's bed for a long time after Tommy's eyes had slid closed and his breathing had evened out. Sleep seemed to him like a human deactivation mode, and after seeing it a few times it became kind of boring to watch. Right now he didn't really mind that Tommy had drifted into sleep. There was a lot to process.

The movie hadn't scared him, but it made him think of scary things. Seeing the movie people getting hurt made him think about Tommy getting hurt. Thinking about Tommy getting hurt made his circuits stutter and freeze with dread.

He believed Tommy that zombies weren't real (mostly, anyway. Some of Kamikaze's clones did look an awful lot like the zombies). But it didn't have to be zombies for Tommy to get hurt.

After putting on the bandage, Tommy had tried to explain to him again about blood. Robotboy had just been glad to know that Tommy's knee had stopped bleeding after a little time. He had checked through the bandage to make sure. He was less reassured by how Tommy kept saying that it was okay, that people could lose a little blood and be fine.

Especially once Gus started telling him about this one guy in this one movie who was all covered with leaches and bled to _death_. Tommy had gotten really mad after that, and the explanation had kind of stopped there.

Robotboy understood _dead_ , but only in the same vague, not-really-real way he had understood _blood_ before today. Robotboy had never expected his friend to bleed so easily. Tommy hadn't had to fall very far at all to hurt himself.

Human bodies were more fragile than his own. Robotboy had thought he already understood that, and tried to protect his friends accordingly. Now the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to learn. Wasn't knowing this part of being human?

Being able to feel scared was part of being human too. Robotboy remembered Tommy trying to explain it to him the first time, though it was strange to think of being so new that he didn't fully understand concepts like _scared_ or _sleep_ or _friends_. Maybe once he understood blood it wouldn't be so scary anymore.

Tommy would help him. He had tried to explain, just like he had tried to make the movie not too scary. Tommy would definitely help him understand.

"Tommy?" Robotboy called.

The human boy really seemed to be asleep. He was laying on his side, his face soft and relaxed, breathing quietly. One hand was up on his pillow with fingers curled near his mouth. Robotboy could clearly see the watch he still wore on his wrist.

Humans needed sleep the way he needed to recharge his batteries. No matter how impatient he was, Robotboy wouldn't disturb his friend's sleep. He watched for another minute, hoping Tommy would wake up on his own, but nothing happened. Tommy was much more fun when he was awake.

"Good night, Tommy."

Robotboy reached out, hesitated in hope that Tommy would wake, then finally touched the button on Tommy's watch to deactivate himself. He knew Tommy would wake him in the morning.


End file.
